Terraformer (Read the whole post)
Kerbalatomic
Join Date: 2015-07-25 Member: 206384Members
Join Date: 2015-07-25 Member: 206384Members
I know the terraformer is getting removed 
When it's removed WHAT WILL DO MY LANDSCAPING??????? How will I build the ramps to the hatch on my island bases and building taller bases on land. There are NO Flying vehicles in Subnautica (I hope there will be eventually). Don't say increase to performance and players drilling to places they shouldn't drill to as the only reasons to remove it. If that's the case, add terraformer boundaries where it just stops drilling.
If the devs plan to readd the terraformer at a later date and are just reworking it to make it balanced then I'm fine with that. (I remember when it was a Green flashlight) if you have made that much progress on an item why delete it?
When it's removed WHAT WILL DO MY LANDSCAPING??????? How will I build the ramps to the hatch on my island bases and building taller bases on land. There are NO Flying vehicles in Subnautica (I hope there will be eventually). Don't say increase to performance and players drilling to places they shouldn't drill to as the only reasons to remove it. If that's the case, add terraformer boundaries where it just stops drilling.
If the devs plan to readd the terraformer at a later date and are just reworking it to make it balanced then I'm fine with that. (I remember when it was a Green flashlight) if you have made that much progress on an item why delete it?
Comments
I've written it many times on this forum and I will write it again - it really is ALL about increasing performance and there's no way around it.
In order to let you keep ANY level of land manipulation, even to just create a small ramp, or dig a shallow hole in the ground, all the related mechanics will have to be kept in the game files. No matter how limited you agree for it to be, it will still have to be the entire system keeping the landmass in the game modifiable for the player. It will still bloat save files, delay terrain loading, glitch you out in dense areas, etc. No matter how fond of it you are, terraforming is just a small, non-essential gameplay mechanic. I enjoyed it as well, but when it's that or huge improvement in performance... the choice is very easy.
And unless I missed the memo or misunderstood the second post, the ability for the buildings to change the terrain around them is being removed as well.
You're welcome.
If they made it so that only explicit action (such as the terraformer or base building) caused terrain change (remove hand digging and damage) and made it only save the parts that were actually changed, the data size would be a lot smaller, and more likely to be confined to the immediate area of bases.
I don't know whether that would fix the performance issues, though, so they might still want to remove the whole thing for that reason rather than just the savegame size.
Sure, but then as @Mirality pointed out the underlying mechanics would still be there, bogging things down whether you picked the option or not. At this point, if the Terraforming is that vital to a player's experience, their best bet is to copy the game onto a USB drive and never let it update.
The game runs fine the way it is if you can't be patient enough to wait for loading to finish then why did you buy the game?
The devs wll most likely make it so you CANNOT build something where it'll go into the terrain. Also, we didn't make the decision. The devs thought performance was more important.
Don't get me wrong I'd love to see Terraforming stick around too, but Unknown Worlds decided that removing the mechanic to further optimize the game was the way to go. If they had the proper resources I'm sure they'd find a way to keep it in.
In the meantime, try copying the game over to a USB and keep it separate from the main game. If Terraforming is truly that important to you, you might want to do it now while the mechanics are still there, so you can go back to that old version and play with it when you need to do that terrain scultping and whatnot.
I thought it was more about the pop-in you get, especially when driving the seamoth. I've had whole hillsides materialize just a few short meters in front of me because of that. It did not end well for my seamoth.
They're not improving it, but removing it. Terrain will be static and totally unchangeable, and in exchange we'll get WAY better performance and loading times. And no pop in.
Well, there is that checkin comment about increasing the auto-terraforming distance on the Moonpool so that the exosuit has room to make it in..... But I figure that's just a temporary thing while the mechanic is still present.
Probably. It does seem like its been carving out more terrain recently.
Edit: never mind, I just saw it here https://trello.com/c/VGGb7PyK/20-remove-terraforming (September)